The present invention relates to bearings, and more particularly to asymmetric wheel hub assemblies.
Asymmetric wheel hub assemblies are known and generally type have an axis of rotation and comprise two rows of rolling bodies with pitch diameters of dimensions that differ from one another, an inner flanged ring and an outer ring arranged coaxially with and externally to the inner ring and, for each row of rolling bodies, an inner raceway and an outer raceway obtained, respectively, on the outside of the inner ring and on the inside of the outer ring in positions axially staggered with respect to one another to permit the asymmetric wheel hub assembly to support combined loads, i.e. loads that act simultaneously in a radial direction and in an axial direction.
With asymmetric wheel hub assemblies of the type described above, the dimension of the pitch diameter of the row of rolling bodies arranged closest to a flange of the inner flanged ring, i.e. of the row of rolling bodies arranged on the so-called “outboard” side, is greater than the dimension of a diameter of the other row of rolling bodies, i.e. of the row of rolling bodies arranged on the so-called “inboard” side. The geometry just described confers greater rigidity on the asymmetric wheel hub assembly, especially if compared with a symmetrical wheel hub assembly in which both pitch diameters are identical and their dimensions are the same as the dimensions of the row of rolling bodies on the “inboard” side.
Asymmetric wheel hub assemblies are used in countless applications in the automobile field, but because of the increasingly restrictive anti-pollution regulations that have come into effect in recent years, it has been necessary to study technological solutions aimed, even indirectly, at reducing both the energy consumption of the vehicles and emissions noxious for the environment such as, for example, carbon monoxide emissions.